1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pick-up apparatus, a method of producing an image file of obtained images, and recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, when image files of picked-up images are produced in conventional image pick-up apparatuses, image files are produced and recorded, using a format conforming with the Camera File System (Design Rule Camera File System, herein after “DCF”) and Exif (Exchangeable Image Format for Digital Camera) used in combination with DCF.
Various technical improvements have been made and proposed to a process of producing files of images. For example, a technique is proposed by Japanese Unexamined Patent No. 2000-261756 A, in which main image data, non-compressed sub-image data and compressed sub-image data are produced in a shooting operation, and then a size of the main image data is judged. When the size of the main image data is smaller than a predetermined value, that is, when the main image data is not of a high resolution, a file including the main image data and compressed image data is produced, whereby a file size of the produced file is reduced. In the above technique, the main image data corresponds to normal pick-up image data, and the sub-image data corresponds to small image data subjected to a reduction process.
However, the conventional technique of producing image files has been made on the assumption that only main image data and sub-image data (thumb image data) are included in the same file with respect to a single image. Therefore, with respect plural image produced in a continuous shooting operation, plural number of files are produced in accordance with the number of the produced images, resulting in yielding troublesome problems in managing and editing the obtained images.